Excellent explanations but I'm still confused. I understood "manquer" to mean "to be missed by" which is why "Tu me manques" means 'You are missed by me" or "I miss you." If "Tu manques un bon repas" means "You are missing a good meal," how would you say "You are missing it."? How do you know which is supposed to be the subject and which is the object?

I have the same question. The problem (for me) is that while the explanation of "Tu me manques" as "You are missing to me" is correct, it doesn't clarify the issue entirely. To clarify, in English we say, "I miss you,", where 'you' is the direct object. In French this type of missing is not expressed using a direct object. Instead, they say, "You are missing to me." This could be expressed as "Tu manques à moi," but more commonly as "Tu me manques." Notice that "me" is an indirect object in this case. To us native English speakers just learning the language, we might be inclined (incorrectly) to think "me" is a direct object because that's the way we express the idea. After all, there is no distinction between direct and indirect in first person singular pronoun like there is in third person (le/lui, la/elle).

So the phrase "You are missing a good meal" is the same in English and in French. The idiom is the same. The distinction is that when someone is missing another person (or place or thing) the idiom in French is different from English. It is the sense of the missing that determines the usage.

In short, the indirect object is required by the idiom, but you have to know the idiom in order to infer the indirect object when you hear or read the sentence. If you know the idiom, it makes sense. If not, it doesn't. This is one of the areas where duolingo is lacking: there is no instruction. It's just trial and error.

Lack basically means to be without st so you could say for example 'I lack the necessary knowledge to answer this question' 'I miss the knowledge ' could mean I once had it.The trouble is that some form of manquer could be used in French for both

I believe that "Tips & Notes" are very helpful. And definitely better than nothing. As I read comments and teach myself French, I don't ever see, "You know, Duolingo has some flaws but it's FREE, still." I appreciate Duolingo staff. Thank you Duolingo.

I so appreciate your explanation that we just need to know it or not. I can relax knowing that, at present, I just don't know enough to understand the difference between> You are missed by me, and, The meal is missed by you..

Do you see how the first sentence is constructed? 'Tu' is the subject. Literally, 'you are missing to me.' So along the same lines, 'un bon repas te manque' would be 'a good meal is missing to you.' Hope that helps.

I'm confused, too. Maybe the literal translation is more like "a good meal misses you", which could be interpreted to mean the same thing anyway, so you restructure the sentence when fully translating to English: "You miss a good meal"

I understood the literal meaning without looking anything up, but I still put in an incorrect translation - "You need a good meal." I just assumed that it was similar to the Spanish "te falta." Now I am seeing that here it is "tu" (subject) rather than "te" (indirect object). Can one say, "Te manque un bon repas?" (for "you need a good meal")?

Why isn't, Tu manques un bon repas, You missED a good meal? I guess I can sustain, missing something, usually a girl, for a while and miss her/it, but no one can tell me I am actively missing something, only that I missed it. Am I right?

the simple present tense to describe an action which may occur now or in the future, or which may represent a fact (I eat apples).

the present progressive tense to describe an action that is happening now (I am eating an apple).

In French though, while they do have an equivalent to the present progressive (french present participle, with verbs ending in "ant"), they can NEVER be used to talk about what someone is doing.

This is why in French if you want to say "I am eating an apple" you have to use the French present tense, and say "Je mange une pomme" (I eat an apple).

It's the same, therefore, with the meal.

In any event, here's a scenario: You're invited to dinner with friends, but choose not to go. You're friend calls you while he's eating and says "Hey, RKSMT! You should have come. You're missing a good meal !!"

I wrote "You need a good meal" and was marked wrong. But I am reluctant to use the verb 'miss' in the present, speaking of a meal. One could say "You could do with a good meal" - that's what the French sentence probably means. So, in my opinion, in this case, the DL is wrong and I am right.

This one got me confused too. I think a distinction can be made between missing something in the sense of longing for it, (f.i. missing a loved one), and missing in the sense of being too late, being in the wrong place etc. (f.i. missing the bus)

Ok, here's a scenario: You and some of your friends decide to go out to a restaurant. You are enjoying the evening and you get a phone call from another friend. You invite him to join you, but he says he can't, he has to study for an exam. You say, "Oh, that's too bad. You're missing a good meal."

Duo's version, "You miss a good meal" is a little less likely, but here's one: You're moping around your house in your pajamas. A friend calls and says, "You must come join us at the restaurant down the street." Slightly annoyed, you reply, "I must? What happens if I don't?" Your friend cheerily answers, "You miss a good meal."

Yes. I lost a heart for using the correct translation ...you are missed by me because Duo wanted me to use the more appropriate English ...I miss you. The reason I used the awkward direct translation of the French was I wanted it clear in my mind when the comparable English phrase wasn't so apparent.

So now comes another use of manque and it is presented as a conventional use of miss rather than missed by.

Because DL is off its rocker - manquer doesn't mean to spoil. I searched and could find no slang or colloquial meanings either that encompassed that. (I am not, however, a native speaker, and I must concede the possibility that I'm just not aware.) (But I don't think so. ;)

I take it there's a difference in the French structure depending on whether the "miss" means "yearn, long for" or "want, need". Still, there's a sentence "il manque un couteau" translated as "a knife is missing" and somebody explained there that "he misses a knife" would be "il LUI manque un couteau" - so shouldn't this be "tu TE manques un bon repas"?

Hi. I have seen that everyone has been asking about the rules regarding "manquer" and here I am, an abnormality... I want to ask if it is wrong to translate "un bon repas" as "a delicious meal" instead of "a good meal" since that's what I input and Duo said I got it wrong... Thanks in advance!

Well, I'd say "bon", like "good", is just a lot more general than "delicious" ("délicieux" en français), which means your translation is not right. It might be a good meal because the food is delicious, or maybe just because you are surrounded by good friends, or they're serving terrific wine, or it's just barely edible but plentiful and you've been starving on a desert island for a month....

Ok, I've run into this before, in Italian. In english, I might jokingly say, "I missed you...but don't worry, I'll aim better next time." In French, this joke wouldn't work, because missing my shot is "je te manque", but feeling the absence of a loved one is "tu me manques." If someone says "you missed a meal", your friend could be saying that you are feeling the absence of that meal. However it is more likely that your friend is noting that you did not successfully show up at the meal.

it is my opinion that "manquer" could be translated two folds: 1. miss someone and 2. Need (in case I want to dare to guess what you need). in this case, "need" is more propriate than "miss". my opinion, though

This one makes me crazy! I just went through "il manque un couteau" and learned "a knife is missing" with a big explanation about how manquer behaves, and shortly thereafter come on this one, where it seems to behave "normally." Oh well, English behaves strangely in many circumstances, so I shouldn't be surprised!

BTW, I entered "you are missing a good meal" (correct) Guess that shows where my head (and stomach) is at.

This is weird because I typed "You are missing a good meal" but i got it wrong then I typed "You are miss a good meal" And I got it correct that's crazy it drives me crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe this is the simplest explanation: you CAN say "i miss you/you miss me" with similar syntax to English. It is "je manque à toi/tu manques à moi." These phrases are similar to "tu manques un bon repas." But the common way to use manquer regarding people is to lose the "à" and place the pronoun "me/te/vous/nous" before manquer.